Prices and program times subject to change. Please call to verify information.

For Release At Will

July 23, 2007

Brookgreen Gardens: Where Art and Nature Meet

Brookgreen Gardens, a National Historic Landmark, located between Myrtle Beach and Pawleys Island, South Carolina, encompasses more than 9,000 acres in the South Carolina Lowcountry. The three main features of Brookgreen Gardens are the Huntington Sculpture Garden, the Center for American Sculpture, and the Lowcountry History and Wildlife Preserve.

The Huntington Sculpture Garden opened in 1932 as America’s first public sculpture garden. Its garden spaces and the collection of sculpture displayed within them have continued to expand through the years. The collection now contains over 1200 works spanning the entire period of American sculpture from the early 1800s to the present, and its placement in over 35 acres of garden and landscape settings creates an extraordinary combination of art and nature.

The thousands of acres in Brookgreen’s Lowcountry History and Wildlife Preserve are rich with evidence of the great rice plantations of the 1800s and the Gullah culture of the enslaved Africans who sustained it, as well as with the native plants and animals of the distinctive landscapes of the Lowcountry. Visitors may explore these places and the culture they supported through the programs at the Lowcountry Center, by walking the Lowcountry Trail with its archeological sites, by touring the animal exhibits, and by traveling on the boat or overland vehicle deep into the Preserve.

The Center for American Sculpture opened in October 2003 and contains a sculptor’s studio, library, and offices. Its purpose is to provide a place to create, teach, research, and promote figurative sculpture by American artists. It hosts sculpture master classes and workshops each year and supports a master sculptor-in-residence program. The Center for American Sculpture is not open to the public but is available for private tours.

Admission to Brookgreen is good for seven days. Children 5 and under are admitted free; adult tickets (19-64) are $12; young adults (13-18) and seniors (65 and over) are $10; children (6-12) are $5. Brookgreen Gardens is located on U.S. 17 between Myrtle Beach and Pawleys Island, South Carolina, and is open to the public daily. For more information, consult our web site at www.brookgreen.org or call 843-235-6000.